Sunday, July 27, 2008

Kiefer Sutherland Lives Large in the Ghetto

SELLER: Kiefer SutherlandLOCATION: Madison Avenue, Los Angeles, CAPRICE: $4,895,000SIZE: 14,400 square feet, 3 bedrooms and 4 bathroomsDESCRIPTION: Beautifully converted Warehouse. This celebrity owned New York styled loft has been done with quality and taste. It combines a 6,000 sq. ft. living space while the rest of the building houses a state of the art recording studio. It is unassuming from the street and beautifully dramatic upon entry. The residence has all rooms opening to each other, 25 ft ceilings, polished concrete floors warmed by a radiant heat, fabulous cooks kitchen and all a walk down the hall to the studio and offices.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: First of all, Your Mama would like to thank all the children for their kind words regarding our little turn on CNN this week. Secondly, we'd like to apologize for not providing some good celebrity real estate sugar for the babies yesterday but this delicate flower was all stroked out from heat exhaustion and simply could not force our fingers to get anywhere near the computer keyboard. Anyhoo, we're back to feeling on an even keel and wanted to drop this little nugget on you before the week began...

Could it be now that the very recently dee-vorced and liquorluvin' actor Kiefer Sutherland is dating a high fashion philly from New York City he does not need his giant warehouse of a home in Los Angeles? Well, Your Mama doesn't know shit about Mister Sutherland's motivations, but we do know that the well regarded actor recently listed his unconventional Los Angeles residence with an asking price of $4,895,000.

The extremely well compensated actor, who currently struts his hard boiled and supah-sexy stuff as Jack Bauer on 24, can afford to live just about anywhere he damn well chooses. However, since July of 2002, the hard driving Hollywood hot shot has famously chosen to hunker down in a bunker like building in a somewhat seedy and not so savory section of Los Angeles wedged in between Hollywood and Silver Lake.

Property records show that in July of 2002, Mister Sutherland forked over $700,000 to purchase a 14,400 square foot warehouse space on N. Madison Avenue. He clearly proceeded to spend boo-coo bucks converting the former ironworks foundry into what listing information indicates is an approximately 6,000 square foot living space and a separate work space that includes offices and a dee-luxe recording studio and offices for Mister Sutherland's record label called Ironworks Music. Yes children, Mister Sutherland has a record label that he co-owns with his BFF Jude Cole, a well known fact that Your Mama did not know before we had a little look-see through the internets this morning.

The front facade of the forbidding building is covered in a colorful and fanciful mural and according to Mister Sutherland is frequently used by the local Salvadoran and Ukrainian gangs who tag the security gates in order to claim to their territory. Well, that's, uh, charming, ain't it? Listing information for Mister Sutherland's large living circumstances indicates that in addition to the three bedrooms and 4 bathrooms, the gigantic open plan space where all the rooms open to each other includes 25 foot ceilings and polished concrete floors with radiant heat. The listing photos reveal that Mister Sutherland's digs also include curtained off areas that function as an art/painting studio and a home gym set up.

The master bedroom appears to be about as large as Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter's entire damn house and as far as we can ascertain includes a sitting area, a punching bag, a big bathroom and a cedar lined sauna. The children will note that the one feature missing from Mister Sutherland's digs are windows. Quite frankly, Your Mama would not want windows if we lived in this place either. In this neck of the Los Angeles woods they are simply an invitation for burglars. However, it does appear that Mister Sutherland's architect smartly includes skylights throughout the structure to allow for at least some natural light.

Listen children, back when Your Mama was a pretty young thing living it up in San Francisco, we used to spend an inordinate amount of time hanging around a warehouse style living and performing space called 21 Bernice where junkies could nod out in peace and down and dirty drag queens could work their shady and brazilliant stuff like nobody'sbizness. However, we were young, practically broke and decidedly not famous so it made a certain amount of sense.

However, we do find it a wee bit unusual, if not a little bih-zarre, that an a-list actor who reportedly makes upwards of $20,000,000 a year would shack up in a quasi-industrial part of town where it (may or) may not be safe for a hugely famous man to walk around after dark. But then again, this bad boy seems to like living his life on a razor thin edge, so maybe it's not so strange after all.

Property records show that Mister Sutherland also owns a modest home on La Maida Street in Sherman Oaks that he bought in December of 2003 for $610,000 as well as 2,467 square foot house on Placidia Avenue in the Toluca Lake area that he bought in July of 2006 for $1,025,000.

As Mister Big Time noted in his run down on Kiefer Sutherland, the hard living actor once owned an 813 acre ranch in Santa Maria, CA that he sold in the year 2000. Your Mama also notes that records show that in 1999 he sold a big house on S. Plymouth Boo-lay-vard in Los Angeles' Hancock Park and in 2003 he and his long-estranged and now ex-wifey Kelly Winn sold their house in Toronto to a writer who ex-poe-sayd the transaction in an inneresting article for The Times (UK).

Geez, so much potential yet so butt-ugly. Look at that kitchen, straight from the suburbs. Yuck.

Also, congrats on the newly achieved fame, mama. I've been reading your blog since...almost since the beginning I believe. I stumbled upon your blog when googling for some celebrity's house. I am more of a architectural real-estate freak than a celebrity real-estate freak but it's still fun to see where they live. However, and I think that goes for most of your readers, what keeps me coming back is your original style of writing. It's smart, hilarious, whitty, insightful, interesting and spot-on.

Hey Mama.........now that we have all gushed about your deserved celebrity, and rightly so, don't you thinks it's only fair that you post your celebrity NYC apartment. I am envisioning a Brideshead Revisited mezzotint of you and the good Doctor each holding a longbody with your stoop in the background. You have to admit it would be nice.......maybe we could get Annie Liebowitz for the shoot. Congratulations again.

I understand why he might not have lots of windows with this particular home, but there are many ways that he could have incorporated them that would have insured his safety yet not made the place feel like he was living in a giant box. The skylights are okay but not enough for me.

Kiefer rocks and I wish him well, but the place just seems like a giant sound stage.

How very "Dan Tanna" of him. I wonder if he parks in the living room? The whole "no windows" thing is depressing, as is most of the bland decor. I like the concrete floors, though. He should have cut a big courtyard into the middle of the warehouse and faced his rooms all around it with big windows.

The decision to buy this mess must have been a drug induced one, as the decision to sell it must be a newly clean/sober one. Good luck getting what he wants for the place. I wouldn't take it for free. Well ok - maybe if it was free.

yep, that's his ex , Kelly that's his agent! And if i could afford it, i would buy it for the recording studio alone! I just came to your site via a google alert! i love your attitude! Tell it like it is! LIZ

This place is awful. I know someone who lives in a place like this without the mural and in a better neighborhood. I don't like that house either. Not enough light and views outside. Awful. Keifer's seems overpriced for the location, too.

No wonder he got into so much trouble...living downtown?!? Well in an act to clean his life up, maybe the judge ordered him to move to the burbs. I'm sure on his salary, he could live anywhere he wants.

the neighborhood was once sketchy, 10 years ago or so.... now it's considered a pretty nice area of L.A. to live in. There is some spillover of a few rough types (which is true of many neighborhoods in Hollywood) and lots of cafes, bars, galleries, hip little boutiques, etc.... but it's also loaded with a prominent population of entertainment industry folks, working artists and gays. It's hardly an industrial section of a warehouse district in downtown L.A. with heavy gang activity and bullets flying. Its not Bel Aire, but it IS a respectable artist-friendly neighborhood. The price makes sense, given the cost of L.A. real estate, the neighborhood (which has many homes upwards of a million and beyond), the upgrades, the size of the building, and most importantly the STATE OF THE ART recording studio that is inside, which Keifer spared no expense in building. Keifer and Jade have done a great job with the musicians they've worked with, and have helped to create some beautiful records. One of the Ironworks artists, Rocco Deluca is getting ready to release their second record, which is being produced by Daniel Lanois. This building is more a business space for his label and studio than a domicile (though it does function as both)... he has many other homes and a grand NY apartment so when you realize it's business function you might have a better understand the lack of windows and price (because Silver Lake is far from a "ghetto").

Is in NOT Silverlake! I know this building (never knew it was celebrity owned) but the neighborhood is really really bad. Most of Hollywood is quickly becoming gentrified, not this pocket. I'm surprised anyone with means would have taken a risk moving in to such a depressing desolate area.